


He Rules the Water and the Land

by Jessica14



Series: He Rules the Water and the Lands [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alex's background, André also, Feelings, Fluff, Happy Ending, Historical looks, Lafayette being a good friend, Lams - Freeform, M/M, a bit angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 10:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15459600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jessica14/pseuds/Jessica14
Summary: This is the Sequel of The Land and Water!Alexander has been having conflicting emotions about the Ocean ever since he was engaged to John. But, he doesn't want it to be the thing that ends their relationship. If his best friend André can't help him then how did Lafayette help him realize that wherever he went he was safe and at home? Because John was his safety and his home.





	He Rules the Water and the Land

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Sequel from The Land and Water!
> 
> Philip doesn't have Hamilton as his last name since Alex isn't his dad so that's why his last name is Schuyler in the tags
> 
> IMPORTANT SO YOU UNDERSTAND: The bowsprit is the thing Pocahontas (in the second movie) stood when she was on the boat, going to England or something. That's the thing where Lafayette led Alexander too where he stood on.

Alexander breathed in deeply, his fingers clenched in his thick locks. Breathe in, he reminded himself just as John opened the door. He looked up and smiled at the blond man. “You’re handsome,” he murmured when he stood up and pressed his face against the curve of his shoulder. John chuckled and wrapped his arms around Alexander's petite figure.

“You're gorgeous,” John told him and rocked them. He was dressed in a loose knitted sweater with khakis pants while Alexander was in a button up under a loose black sweater with the collar sticking out. “You excited to get back on the water?” He asked him happily.

Alexander held in his wince and nodded. Not really, he thought, I'm sick of the water. Alexander and John both settled down on land in a pretty populated place, it was peaceful and close by to the University Alexander attended. But, now that he graduated and got his diploma John has been insisting that they go take a trip to the ocean again.

They always went with Washington’s Crews when Alexander was in University and he got his breaks but now that he finished John wants to take a longer break with them than they usually do.

Alexander, when it was his breaks, would join John on a trip with the Washington Crew. He hated it. Hated when it rained and get drenched and hated when they were stuck on unsteady waters when it thundered. But, Alexander kept all that in ever since John proposed to him, now they were engaged.

Was his selfishness really going to be the downhill of their relationship? John done so much, buying a house for him near his University, he was lucky that John already had his diploma and had inherited his father's money. But, he despised how John’s heart clearly was with the Ocean seeing as John left his father and siblings the moment he could when he was younger.

All Alexander ever wished for was to settle down, get a family maybe, get a house, and make a change in the world. To lend a hand to those who needed it, but instead, he was stuck between going to the Land and the Water.

“Let me just stock up on supplies, then. Go finish up packing,” Alexander said instead, and John smiled wider. Alexander grabbed his messenger bag and walked outside. When he reached the stands where all the traders were he nervously twisted his engagement ring before pulling out his coins.

“Oh, Alexander!” Alexander jumped, whirled around and craned his head up to make eye contact with André. André was a friend he made when he went to University. “What are you looking for? We should definitely go for a drink sometime!”

“Oh, André! I'm just getting medical supplies for when John and I go back to Washington's crew tomorrow,” Alexander said a bit sadly. “I don't know if I can get those drinks with you anytime soon since we'll be gone for a while.”

“Still don't like the Ocean and seas, Alexander?” André questioned sympathetically. The only reason he knew this was because one day after classes they went for drinks where Alexander basically wept about how much he hated the waters. “You should really talk this through with your fiancé John or who knows what kind of strain that will put to your engagement!”

“I know,” Alexander said tiredly, biting his lip sullenly. He handed the trader the coins and he didn’t miss the sympathetic glance that he got from him. Anger and frustration swelled up inside him, he didn't need sympathy it was his own fault for feeling this way anyways!

“You should ask him if you can go drinks with me tonight. As some kind farewell to you best friend,” André said after a moment of silence apparently noticing the frustration gnawing at him. “I promise to bring you home before 10,” André mockingly vowed, his hand over his chest with his other arm behind him.

“What a gentleman,” Alexander teased. “But, sure I'll see what I can do.” Alexander sighed.

 

John-in his happy daze-agreed immediately and off Alexander went to go get drinks with his friend. “We can't go heavy because you're going on a ship tomorrow,” André told him absentmindedly. Alexander snorted and draped himself over the counter.

“Can I get a drink that's strong enough to battle with the frustrating emotions that made me remember why I never wanted someone to court me but that's not too strong because I'm going on a boat with that person that's making me feel this way and I don't want to look like a bitch and ruin their day?” Alexander asked the bartender dully.

André looked at him weirdly, but the bartender snorted and propped her elbows on the counter. “I feel you, honey. Relationship problems? I know just the thing for you, I order this all the time. In fact, it's my own drink that is used so often that the bar know makes them and sells them.”

Alexander and André watched as she got a glass and glanced at André. “What about you?”

“Oh, just wine.” André smiled nervously at their deadpan expressions but nonetheless, she served. Alexander's taking a bit longer, but Alexander nursed it before downing it all.

“Yeah, relationship problems. He's just as reckless as I am but I prefer doing all the stupid shit on land and not on the ocean. I’ve been on the damn waters for long enough before I even met him,” Alexander said sullenly. She nodded understandingly.

“Pirates. Or sailor,” she added quickly. “I used to be a prostitute and I made a lot of money. Totally worth it if all they wanted was something silly: sex!”

“Oh my god, finally!” Alexander yelped, and she refilled his glass. “Someone who understands!” She didn't need him to explain that he was one too, but she smiled at his relief and understood that too.

“Got myself a hot pirate boyfriend but I hated when the ship rocked so unsteadily and when it thundered,” she moaned miserably. Alexander nodded furiously and gulped his drink. André quietly sipped his wine, occasionally glancing at his watch. “Thought I was going to die! Anyways I wanted something more stable, so I left, I'm looking for a man who can understand.”

Alexander reached to pay but André was already pulling him up from his seat and playing. “Well, it was nice talking!” André said politely despite not saying much. “But, Alexander has to go now because he has to go tomorrow!”

“Good luck, honey! Whack some sense into him and make some sort of deal! You're worth fighting for!” She called out and Alexander caught sight of her little name tag. Elizabeth Sanders.

“I hope you find your dream man, Elizabeth! You deserve it too!” Alexander laughed and leaned against André who sighed.

“You listen to her but not me?!” André asked him, pretending to be offended.

“She understands.”

 

So here Alexander was leaning against the railing of the ship. It just started to drizzle, and Alexander huffed out angrily when the paper he was writing on got drenched. John was with Washington helping him with god knows what when Alexander felt the ship start to rock unsteadily.

Most of the crew was just chatting, not really paying attention. All of them drunk on the happiness that their closest friend returned and with his fiancé who was desperately trying to show that he loved being here and wasn't totally faking it! Alexander sighed, alright he has to give them some credit, he did love and miss their loud, boisterous humor.

The rain started to pour, and it was getting insanely hard to see. He could faintly hear John calling out to him that he should probably go inside his room when suddenly---

 _“Augh!”_ Alexander screamed as the ship flung to the right, something sharp piercing his back. Alexander was thrown forward and slammed into the tipped part of the ship that was dangerously close to the ocean. Whatever hit them, hit them hard! Waves already started to ooze onto the ship and Alexander screamed when he fell over just as the ship snapped back upwards.

“Whoa!” The crew screamed, some scrambling to hold onto something as others tried to see what they crashed into. Alexander didn't have time to yell for help because he was twisting mid-air and grabbing at the railing of the ship. God this was the third time he was flung overboard.

“Everybody okay?” Washington called out and Alexander's hand slipped from how wet the railing was.

“Someone screamed!” Peggy yelled out and Alexander cursed at the rain that smacked his face, burning his eyes.

“Oh my gosh, we just barely dodged this rock kind of mountain thing in the water! We just scraped it!” Hercules gasped out and reached over next to him to grab Alexander. He barely could see the outline of the rock-mountain, but he was momentarily confused when his hand brushed nothing. “Alexander?”

Alexander grunted and started to dig his nails into the wood of the railing and desperately pushed his foot against the base of the ship, but it was too slippery. The waves were dangerously close to his feet. “H-Hercules!” He croaked out, but the pounding rain covered his voice making him impossible to hear. “John!”

It's too wet! He thought desperately. “Alexander?!” Hercules cried out as he looked around desperately. “Man overboard! Alexander's gone! I repeat Alexander’s gone!” He yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to be heard.

“Alexander?! Alexander, stop playing around!” John called out and ran down the steps to get on the deck where most of everyone was.

No way would they be able to see him over the rain or hear him! Alexander thought in panic and slid his forearm through the railing to press it against it. His right hand slipped, and he cried out. “Check over the railings!” Too slow, too slow, he thought, damn his right arm!

His right arm was usually covered in bandages because it was always the one getting injured and because of his recklessness as a prostitute, his right arm was now weaker than his left one. He could hear someone getting closer, but he reacted fast and flung his right arm over it either way.

Despite the pain from pressing his arms against the railing to push himself up, he persisted. Alexander yelped as he fell head first onto the deck, his legs flinging after him. “Alexander!” Lafayette gasped out in relief and raced towards his drenched figure.

“I hate the fucking ocean,” Alexander grumbled and with Lafayette's help he stood up wobbly. His inner forearms stung, and they were red.

“I got him! I got, Alexander!” Lafayette shouted, and he practically felt the crew breathe out a sigh of relief. John raced forward and grabbed Alexander's arm and tugged him to his chest.

His heart was racing, Alexander realized as he pressed his ear against his chest right where his heart should be. “Shit,” John whispered and tightened his grip around his waist when he felt Alexander shivering. “I’m taking him inside!”

When John pushed him back a bit Alexander stumbled. He quickly wrapped his arm around his back only to jerk back at the slickness and at the color of red. Alexander shivered and stumbled a few steps to the left. Lafayette dived after him and unraveled his bandana to wrap it around Alexander to stop the blood coming from the back of his head.

“His back is bleeding too! He must have hit the rock!” John gasped and immediately they hurried him inside. Eliza quickly took to treating him.

 

Alexander woke up in different clothing. He was wearing a loose white shirt that was tucked into some beige pants. The sleeves were slim on his upper arm, but it puffed out around his forearms, it had a collar and it ended with just a button that he could unbutton to not make the shirt too tight. The sash Hercules made him was wrapped loosely around his waist—he was reminded of the rope he used to tie around his waist that he now used to hold up one of their broken curtains back home.

His head pulsed, and his back stung tremendously. It felt like someone was pressing hot knives. against him, so he turned to lay on his side. Okay, all is okay because this is for John so don’t ruin it, he thought sourly. The door creaked open and he could hear the soft padding of someone approaching.

“Are you awake?” Philip, he realized when a small hand touched his shoulder. He rolled over and smiled at the small boy with black hair and blue eyes. “Oh, you are! I’ll go get mom and John! Stay here!” Then he ran out.

“If I could move then I wouldn’t be here anymore,” Alexander murmured but he smiled nonetheless.

 

Alexander was leaning against the railing of the ship, content. John and Eliza had checked up on him and before he knew he was good to wander around again. John was a bit more nervous about letting him wander on the deck especially so close to the edge. He knew that by how he noticed how John kept a close eye on him.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Lafayette asked him. Alexander jumped startled not expecting the French man to appear.

_Alexander was sitting on the sand with his knees drawn up to his chest and he wrapped his arms around them. He was alone, he closed his eyes against the thought. Dad left, mom died, brother left, cousin committed suicide, foster system is full, all alone. The ocean brushed against his toes and he relaxed a bit. This was okay._

“What is?” Alexander asked but he knew what he was implying. The sun was just setting and it casted beautifully over the Ocean. The boat created ripples through it too making the colors twist together.

“The Ocean. Kind of the reason I wanted to be a pirate, I didn't need too. I had money and a gorgeous house but I didn't have a home,” Lafayette said absentmindedly. Alexander glanced at John who was now talking to another man so he focused back to the Frenchman. “I met these guys and the Ocean just gave me this blanket of peace so I decided that this is my home.”

_Alexander was being pushed around by the winds and he gasped when he tumbled into the waves of the Ocean. Rain was pounding down on him and the wind was throwing him further into the Ocean. Alexander tried to open his eyes but the winds produced by the hurricane was making him risk getting sand in his eyes._

_He felt cold-horror wash over him when he noticed how the water pulled him off his feet. “NO!” He screamed when the waves dragged him further in, he screamed when the water curled upwards and slammed down on him. Breathe, he thought dimly, breathe!_

“Huh,” Alexander said quietly. “I just want to stay on land,” he admitted, speaking lowly as if he feared that someone else might hear. “I don't think the Ocean or the Land gives me that safety net but both places just make my skin itch with irritation because such bad things occurred to me when I was a kid!”

_Alexander sobbed as he crawled himself up into the top of the building. The sky was yellow, safe, he thought. Safe for a while, find safe place, he continued to think weakly. Blood was drenching his sides and backs but he forced himself into the room where nothing was inside. Just in time too because the winds started up again and he heard the rain pounding against the walls._

“I don't know why I'm telling you this,” Alexander said after a moment of silence. “God, this is pathetic!” Lafayette dared a glance at John before grabbing Alexander by the elbow.

“You saw the worst on both parts, now it's time to face it and realize that they are some benefits to everything.” Lafayette dragged Alexander up to where a fellow pirate was steering the ship and crept past everyone else. “You ever stood on the bowsprit?”

“What?!” Alexander asked surprised. “On that thin thing at the front of the boat!? No way! That thing does not have a solid place underneath it like the deck, it's literally a thin plank hanging over the ocean!”

“Come on,” Lafayette urged. The pirate steering the ship looked at them, shook his head and smiled. “Face it straight on! Look at how alive and rushing it is! You can then decided if it's a danger to you.”

He was offering his hand to Alexander and he hesitantly took it. He helped the redhead up and Alexander immediately felt the wind nipping at his clothes. Lafayette followed after him, still holding his hand he outstretched it over the ocean on their right side and Alexander immediately shot his left hand over the ocean on his left side.

Alexander's heart pounding as he placed his left foot in front of his right and continued until he was at the tip. Lafayette let him go awhile ago. He dared a glance downwards and watched as the ocean curled and parted around the ship, he watched as it sloshed around filled with vibrant colors but darkening deeper down.

“Amazing,” he breathed out and looked up to where the sun was sinking into the Ocean. _The water sloshed it's way in his mouth and down his throat and he felt it burning his nose—_ but Alexander forced that memory away and instead was surprised when another one resurfaced, one he forgot.

_“Isn’t it beautiful, Alex?” His mother asked him. She was holding his hand, he was only 8 and he looked at the Ocean that seemed to stretch on endlessly. “Everything is beautiful, isn't it? We just need to see it and not let any bad thing stop us from cherishing everything we got,” she told him and she bent down to scoop him up._

_Alexander shrieked and laughed when she spun around in the Ocean and the beach loosely. He enjoyed the wind tickling his skin and the water sloshing it's way up his legs from his mother's skipping. He watched her kick a handful of sand and watched as the sand busted mid-air and fell back down. “Don’t you agree, baby?”_

_He could almost feel his mother. He could almost remember her hold and the way his father had laughed and squeezed his brothers hand tightly. “Come on! You're getting your clothes soaked!” He called out and his mother laughed. She put him down and grabbed his hand._

“Yeah, Mama,” he choked out quietly. He carefully squatted down and reached his right arm down, his left hand clutching the wood tightly. His fingers skimmed the Ocean. “Yeah, I get it.” A smile broke out on his face but then he heard a yell.

“Alexander!” He looked up startled to see a sheepish Lafayette and a worried John. “Alex, baby what are you doing over there? You're going to fall!” The feeling of his mother's arms cradling him disappeared and he glanced at the water quickly.

“Right. I'm coming!” He shouted back sullenly. Lafayette seemed to perk up at that, seeing that his plan had indeed worked. That Alexander finally decided to overcome his fear and understand it. Alexander took quick steps and jumped onto the deck.

“God, don't do that!” John told him as he quickly embraced him. Alexander felt the stinging in his eyes but he closed them and hugged him back. “Shit, you scared me.”

“’M sorry,” Alexander said, his voice muffled as he pressed his face against his chest. He relaxed when the blanket of safety and peace rested on his shoulders again when he heard John's heart beating and when he tightened his grip around him.

John is my home, he thought and opened his eyes, this crew is my family. He saw the crew around the deck, Elizabeth giggling with her sisters and Philip playing with Hercules. This is my family and he glanced at Philip who he was slowly teaching him the basic of education. He was making a small change in this small world.

He glanced at Lafayette and he seemed to understand the message he was trying to convey. Lafayette seemed to noticed and smiled at him, happy that he was able to find the safe and peacefulness of home.

“I love you, John,” Alexander choked out quietly when John and him went to their room. “I don't say it enough,” he continued and warm tears slid down his cheeks. “I almost let one thing ruin my life but I-I just want you to know that no matter what I love you and that I'm staying.” He took in a shaky breath halfway through his sentence and broke down crying.

“Alex,” John breathed out worriedly and held him tightly. “I love you too, I promise. I don't know what spurred this on but I'm staying here as long as you'll let me.” He buried his face into Alexander's red locks and felt the warm tears gathering around the edge of his eyes. Alexander wept and held him tighter.

 _“Don't you agree, baby?”_ Alexander heard the whispering words from his mother and looked up at John. John held him tighter. “I love you.” Alexander closed his eyes when John dipped down to kiss him. _Yeah, Mama I agree, everything really is beautiful._


End file.
